Bieng good just isn't this franchise - or its previous owner
IF IT appeared the Yankees lacked real urgency in their brief and sorry October stay, tomorrow remains a favored day in November on their pinstriped calendars.
General manager Brian Cashman was a technical free agent as he undertook the unhappy, unpleasant task of facing nicely worded but ultimately negative media questions on Friday following a 13th straight season that ended in disappoint- ment. You heard that right. Not a thing has been done about Cashman’s own contract, which expired last Monday. It isn’t clear if he is working for free for his billionaire boss, but it surely isn’t the way things should be handled.
If nothing else, Cashman’s bizarre contractual situation served nicely as a metaphor for how the Yankees operate now. The team that used to lead the league in effort and proclaim seasons a failure if they ended short of a World Series title seems way too satisfied these days. George Steinbrenner used to get started on plans for next year a minute after lifting the World Series trophy. Now, procrastination is part of the plan.
While the Yankees — and most notably the great Aaron Judge — provided thrills in the regular season, their old win-or-fail mission statement is long forgotten. These are not your father’s Yankees. The team has not won the Series since George
Steinbrenner passed on, and just about everything else has changed, too. While we can’t say we miss the days when players were called out publicly, front office turmoil was palpable and a revolving door existed at several key coaching roles, the harsh reality is that the urgency to win ain’t what it used to be.
Hal Steinbrenner can trot out his key decision makers, who can tell us how much he wants to win (Cashman actually said that Friday). But the reality is in the pudding, and it isn’t pretty.
Manager Aaron Boone told us at the postmortem press conference he feels the team is “close,’’ and that might work in Cincinnati or Kansas City. But close is failure. Or that’s what we were told for decades.
The Yankees can tell us, too, that they should be able to win on a $260 million payroll. But the truth is they aren’t doing that. Their revenues are nearly double that of the Mets, yet they were outspent by their Queens brothers.
Boone and Cashman are lovely, levelheaded guys, and after a 99-win season and a fifth straight season together making the playoffs, I don’t advo
cate their ouster (if anything, Cashman should be treated better, as there’s no reason he should be working 24 hours a day without a contract). But I do think something has to change.
Thirteen years of failure (by their own past standard) and many years of allowing the dreadful Astros organization to “wreak havoc” (Cashman’s words) are enough. It’s time for Hal Steinbrenner to step forward and seriously improve the chances for success by spending more of the team’s profits. It’s OK that we don’t hear from him, but we need to start seeing some real effort and urgency.
Boone needed to show more of it in the playoffs when the Yankees were caught too often with the wrong reliever on the mound and the season on the line. But that’s OK, they weren’t as good as the Astros, and as unpalatable as that is to admit, Cashman glumly conceded as much Friday. The injuries were mentioned many times, and they clearly factored in — DJ LeMahieu, Andrew Benintendi, Scott Effross, Ron Marinaccio, Michael King and Chad Green couldn’t post, Giancarlo Stanton looked 50 percent and Matt Carpenter about 1 percent — but those pains don’t explain the previous 12 seasons.
The Yankees have settled so much in recent years they resemble a mid-market team that prides itself on picking up bargains (see Jose Trevino and Carpenter) and is happy to have a chance. They didn’t play for Bryce Harper or Manny Machado. They passed on Corey Seager and Carlos
Correa. They accepted Frankie Montas after negotiating hard on top choice Luis Castillo. Some consolation prize that.
The last time the Yankees actually accomplished their own one true outcome — that is, a world championship — was 2009, the very year they spent almost a half billion on CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett. There was a lot of talk Friday about the importance of bringing back Judge, and Cashman was appropriately complimentary (sucking up never hurts). But even if they bring Judge back, and he repeats the 62-homer thing, why assume that will suffice?
The Yankees need to get back to their roots, channel Steinbrenner the father, and do something bold. The recommendation here hasn’t changed — add either Correa or Trea Turner, or even Xander Bogaerts if they prefer, sign Carlos Rodon or Justin Verlander (Jacob deGrom is too unreliable, plus there’s no need to trigger the Mets into trying for Judge). They need to go nuts on the market, the way The Boss would have. Show some real urgency and honest-to-goodness interest in winning, not just the claim of it. Then maybe we won’t have to repeat this depressing press conference for a 14th straight season.